This invention relates to electronic musical instruments, and in particular is concerned with improvements in the guitar-like instrument the subject of our International patent application No. PCT/GB84/00158 published under the publication No. WO 84/04619, (U.S. patent application Ser. No. 691,486) the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
Our earlier application describes a guitar-like musical instrument for use with a synthesizer. The instrument has a body and a neck, and the neck carries six pitch strings, which the player depresses onto conductive frets to determine the selected semitone. The body carries six trigger strings, which can be plucked or strummed to initiate or trigger the desired notes. Alternatively, the notes can be triggered by six trigger keys. Means are provided for detecting the point at which the pitch strings are depressed, but problems can arise when the player bends the string sideways to achieve special effects. In that case it will be possible for the pitch sensing circuitry to produce a spurious output. Embedded in the finger board are a number of string bend detection coils which sense the sideways bending of the strings and provide a control signal for producing special effects in response thereto.